Wichita State holds on for victory in Las Vegas Classic

Dec 20, 2006 - 6:24 AM
WICHITA, Kansas (Ticker) -- Wichita State survived a scare to
make their trip to Las Vegas on a high note.

Ryan Martin scored 19 points and P.J. Couisnard added 15 to lead
the No. 8 Shockers to a 74-65 victory over Kennesaw State in
the second round of the Las Vegas Classic.

With the win, Wichita State (9-0) matched the best start in
school history, which was set in 2004-05. The Shockers next
will face New Mexico in Las Vegas on Friday.

The Owls (2-9) were able to hang tough in the first half as
Golden Ingle scored 21 of his 26 points on 7-of-8 shooting,
including 3-of-4 from 3-point range to go to the break trailing,
35-32.

Martin netted 15 points in the second half as Wichita State
built a 16-point lead midway through the session only to see
Kennesaw State fight back with a 12-0 run to pull within 59-56.

"That's a well coached team that came in here and got some
confidence and used the clock," Shockers coach Mark Turgeon
said. "We had the game and then got a little complacent. They
hit some shots and we panicked a little bit."

The Shockers clamped down and went on a 7-0 run to increase
their lead to 66-56 with under three minutes to play and never
looked back.

"I think our bench grew up a lot tonight," Couisnard said. "They
came off the bench and played great tonight. It's good to have
great players come off the bench like that in case we really do
need them like we did tonight."